31 Days to an Intentional Life: The Month in Review

Happy Halloween, my friends! Can you believe that October is over already?! This month has been a little different at Just a Girl and Her Blog. I’ve had some DIY projects sprinkled in here and there, but for the most part, I have been doing a series called 31 Days to an Intentional Life. Life gets busy and crazy and stressful and out of control sometimes, so I wanted to take a month to slow down and really focus on getting into purposeful, healthy habits that would help our family function smoothly even when our schedule is busy.

I started out by talking about my favorite thing– setting goals. I place so much emphasis on goal-setting because I believe it works. It’s motivating and it helps me stay focused. I even shared a cute little printable that you can use to get all of your goals nice and organized– snag yours here!

Next you got to find out how crazy I truly am when I spilled my method for getting things done and accomplishing goals. 😀 I set goals for the year, the month, the week, and for each day in order to stay on top of things and make the most of my time. {Free printables in this post too!}

Then it was time to talk about my newly revamped morning routine. My old one was awful, but my new routine has really helped me (and the Cs) to start off the day on the right foot and set ourselves up for success right away. We’re not going back to the old way!

I then took a break from all of the productivity talk to talk about how sometimes life just happens. I plan and plan and plan, but those plans still fail sometimes. I get off my game and things don’t go the way I’d imagined. And that’s okay. We’re not trying to create any Stepford wives around here. We’re just trying to make the most of our time and resources, so if it doesn’t work out sometimes, we’ll just get up the next day and try again.

I couldn’t talk about my morning routine without also talking about my evening routine and how it plays a big role in how much I accomplish the following day. It’s still a work in progress, but we’re getting there!

And then I tackled the post I was dreading: I talked about cleaning. I may love to organize, but cleaning goes on the list of my least favorite things, so I talked about how we’re handling the cleaning schedule around here and gave options that others may want to use as well.

Finally, I gave my list of the top 10 habits I either have in place or am in the process of putting into place in order to stay organized. They’re simple concepts, but they make a huge difference in my day and in how our household functions.

So what did I learn from this month of intention? I learned that sometimes the tasks I dread the most (ahem, dishes and other various cleaning tasks) are the ones that help my day run more smoothly, so it is more than worth it to suck it up and get them out of the way. I learned that small tweaks in my routine (like starting my day with a quiet time and exercise) and make a big difference in mindset and productivity. I leaned that habits can be changed– I don’t have to be stuck in those unproductive ruts (not getting enough sleep, trying to wing it rather than having a plan, etc.).

I also learned that I’m not perfect, not even close. I learned that I can make all the plans I want and things will still go haywire sometimes. I learned that some days it’s good to just throw the plan out the window and be spontaneous. And I’ve learned that even when I get off track and things don’t go my way, I can get up the next day and try again and maybe even learn something in the process.

This month has helped me to really slow down and figure out what my priorities really are and has allowed me to actually order my life around those priorities rather than just attending to whatever emergency happens to pop up at the moment. And while I still have a long way to go, I definitely feel like I’ve made progress, so I’ll chalk it up as a success!

If you’ve been following along with this series, I’d love to hear if you’ve done or learned anything new throughout the month. I’d also like to hear any feedback you might have– are these types of posts helpful at all? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you so much for humoring me this month and coming along for the ride! Let’s go out there and live with intention! 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!

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Comments

Abby you’re so great!! I loved the posts this month and i would really love to see more of this 🙂 Thank you so much. It was so helpfull to see how you did this and i will do the same thing now in november. Hope i can find also a morning and evning routine and getting better organized. Thank you! Love your blog <3

I enjoyed this series! It’s so easy to get busy and let the important things slide in the chaos. That’s not how I want to live, and this series has helped me prioritize and focus.

I have three kids (20, 14, & 12), and I can’t believe how fast the past years have gone! I don’t want to wake up six years from now (when they will all likely be out of the house at college or on their own) and feel I missed anything! Reading your posts and doing exercises on my own has helped me to refocus and put that desire front and center.

Thank you so much for your sweet words, Tiffany! They truly mean so much! And I hear you– those little ones grow up way too fast! I keep telling mine to slow down, but they just don’t listen. 😉 Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!

I just found your blog through Pinterest. I’m too trying to get my life in order and get things done. I love these posts!! They are going to be helpful to me when I now in November gonna put my life in order 🙂

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